Um, I have another question. If I do use my desktop to transcode, does that mean I send the output directly to my projector or can I keep the Sony BD in the equation? With the Sony I can use its remote to control play. If the desktop, then I have to figure out how to control play. I think I can maybe use the HDTV app to do that, if I am using file types that it can deal with. Thanks for answers.

Um, I have another question. If I do use my desktop to transcode, does that mean I send the output directly to my projector or can I keep the Sony BD in the equation? With the Sony I can use its remote to control play. If the desktop, then I have to figure out how to control play. I think I can maybe use the HDTV app to do that, if I am using file types that it can deal with. Thanks for answers.

If you do that, you've just made yourself an HTPC (check out the HTPC forum as well). That can easily be controlled by remote as well. Just get an IR dongle and possibly an RF remote if it's not line of sight, just use a smartphone app to control it over wi-fi. Pick your favorite remote friendly app for playback, like XBMC, Plex , JRiver or MB3. Some of those can also run on a Pi, Roku, or Android box of some sort, in case you'd rather not connect your TV directly to your PC. I connect mine only because my PC is also my 6 tuner whole-home cable TV DVR. I stream other files to my Sony BD players in other rooms of the house.

Having said all that, I think transcoding is evil. It generally looks terrible, even with a lot of computing power. Just encode in a native format Sony can play to begin with. Transcoding is great for small screen devices like phones and tablets, but not for TVs and certainly not for projectors. If I were you, I'd try harder to find solutions that don't require transcoding. With Serviio, my Sony players can play about 90% of all my videos without transcoding.

Does anyone know why on the BDP-S590 the Vudu App does not have the closed caption option in the player? Why would Sony not update the Vudu player to include Closed Captioning? It seems every other Vudu player I have tried has the CC option and since other apps on the S590 such as Netflix support CC, it does not seem like it would be a technical limitation.

Could any possessor of BDP-S490/590 make an experiment for me? I don't possess an A/V receiver and my doubt is if when playing DTS-HD MA 7.1 the player actually decodes the lossless stream or the lossy core.
Set the player to decode to LPCM and send through HDMI to the receiver which must be in DIRECT mode, as to not process the stream in any way: is the receiver outputting all 7.1 channels or just 5.1?
Thanks.

It will send whichever your receiving device can handle. There is a handshake, and if your device doesn't support lossless, it won't be sent. So if you plug into a TV you get lossy or 2 ch. If you plug into an AVR, you get lossless.

It will send whichever your receiving device can handle. There is a handshake, and if your device doesn't support lossless, it won't be sent. So if you plug into a TV you get lossy or 2 ch. If you plug into an AVR, you get lossless.

If you don't have an AVR, why the concern?

Sorry, but that doesn't answer my question. The only way to know if a player can fully decode (not bitstream, I don't care about that now) DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, is to send multichannel LPCM to an AV receiver set to DIRECT mode and see if there are all 7.1 ch or just 5.1. Is anyone willing to try, please?

Could any possessor of BDP-S490/590 make an experiment for me? I don't possess an A/V receiver and my doubt is if when playing DTS-HD MA 7.1 the player actually decodes the lossless stream or the lossy core.
Set the player to decode to LPCM and send through HDMI to the receiver which must be in DIRECT mode, as to not process the stream in any way: is the receiver outputting all 7.1 channels or just 5.1?
Thanks.

Sorry, but that doesn't answer my question. The only way to know if a player can fully decode (not bitstream, I don't care about that now) DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, is to send multichannel LPCM to an AV receiver set to DIRECT mode and see if there are all 7.1 ch or just 5.1. Is anyone willing to try, please?

Sorry. I didn't realize that was in question. I thought that fact was well established years ago when the 90 series first came out. It's only the 100 series and above that we know can't decode HD audio.

I've searched this thread but I can't find my specific issue. I just hooked my S590 up to my Samsung LN46A550P3F, and after originally having some issues getting the blu ray remote to function, I am now having a bigger issue. The player will launch movies, but whenever I try to hit the Home button, or the Netflix button, the screen goes blank and the tv says no signal. Has anyone seen this issue before? I updated the S590 firmware. Nothing seems to work outside of watching movies.

I've searched this thread but I can't find my specific issue. I just hooked my S590 up to my Samsung LN46A550P3F, and after originally having some issues getting the blu ray remote to function, I am now having a bigger issue. The player will launch movies, but whenever I try to hit the Home button, or the Netflix button, the screen goes blank and the tv says no signal. Has anyone seen this issue before? I updated the S590 firmware. Nothing seems to work outside of watching movies.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Someone helped me fix this... I held stop on the unit for 10 seconds, which brought the resolution to its lowest setting so I could adjust it within the guide. Now I'm unsure why I can only use 720p or 1080i to see the menu and Netflix... since the tv is 1080p. At least now I know it's a software issue and there isn't anything wrong with the hardware.

I have a BDP-S390 player, with all firmware updates applied, and I recently tried to play a BD from chapter 6 instead of from the beginning. There was no audio, even though there had been audio when the top menu was displayed. I had to cycle through the audio tracks with the remote to get the audio to come on. I have never had this happen before. What could have caused this? Thanks.

I have the S390, am new to DVD ripping except in producing disks, want to get into digital rips. I installed Makemkv and did a basic (default settings) rip to an mkv file and put it in a folder in my new Synology DS214play NAS's video folder, turned on the S390 and directed it to the folder but it says the file is either corrupted or in an unsupported file type. What are the issues here? Can I configure Makemkv to rip to a file that the Sony can play? Do I need instead to run Handbrake on the mkv to produce something the Sony can play? What are my options? TIA for guidance.

I have the S390, am new to DVD ripping except in producing disks, want to get into digital rips. I installed Makemkv and did a basic (default settings) rip to an mkv file and put it in a folder in my new Synology DS214play NAS's video folder, turned on the S390 and directed it to the folder but it says the file is either corrupted or in an unsupported file type. What are the issues here? Can I configure Makemkv to rip to a file that the Sony can play? Do I need instead to run Handbrake on the mkv to produce something the Sony can play? What are my options? TIA for guidance.

Which video codecs are you using? Mkv is just a container. Sony may not be compatible with the video codecs you are using.

Which video codecs are you using? Mkv is just a container. Sony may not be compatible with the video codecs you are using.

Yeah, I figure, well I don't know. I just downloaded, installed Makemkv recently and ran it against a DVD movie (actually two), and got what I got, an MKV. Now, in my investigations the last couple weeks or so I saw that there's a utility that will tell me what codec was employed in making an MKV, don't remember what utility. I figure Makemkv has a default codec, since I didn't get the choose (the way I used it, anyway). Whatever the default is that's what was used.

Yeah, I figure, well I don't know. I just downloaded, installed Makemkv recently and ran it against a DVD movie (actually two), and got what I got, an MKV. Now, in my investigations the last couple weeks or so I saw that there's a utility that will tell me what codec was employed in making an MKV, don't remember what utility. I figure Makemkv has a default codec, since I didn't get the choose (the way I used it, anyway). Whatever the default is that's what was used.

See first page of this thread. Only h.264/mpeg4 is supported in the mkv container by these players. If you want to use mkv, you would need to transcode to h.264. This will reduce quality and take a lot of time, but should reduce file size.

The other alternative would be to rip to a container for which the Sony supports mpeg2 (m2ts or mpeg for example) so you can remux without transcoding, but I don't think MakeMKV will do that.

Someone helped me fix this... I held stop on the unit for 10 seconds, which brought the resolution to its lowest setting so I could adjust it within the guide. Now I'm unsure why I can only use 720p or 1080i to see the menu and Netflix... since the tv is 1080p. At least now I know it's a software issue and there isn't anything wrong with the hardware.

Ever feel like you're talking to yourself? Anyway, figured I'd follow-up in case anyone else has had a similar issue. Found the problem. "Deep Color" was turned on in the video settings. This setting apparently carries a high bitrate, which was creating issues when trying to output to 1080p. Not sure if my HDMI cable is bad, or not rated high enough. Regardless, I read that Deep Color doesn't really make a big difference... so I deactivated it and voila, 1080p works and the menu/Netflix now appears and functions just fine.

See first page of this thread. Only h.264/mpeg4 is supported in the mkv container by these players. If you want to use mkv, you would need to transcode to h.264. This will reduce quality and take a lot of time, but should reduce file size.

I have used Handbrake, which is talked about a lot in transcoding to h.264, I used it to reduce the file size of videos I took with my Canon point and shoot (1080p video that was awfully bloated to begin with), haven't used it since. Did that only a time or two. Did it to allow uploading to Picasa, IIRC.

My usage of Handbrake was such that it was apparent that you can set many many parameters. I think you could minimize size and quality loss if that's your priority, and I imagine that people tweak the parameters to reach what is for them the happy medium between quality and file sizes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vampidemic

The other alternative would be to rip to a container for which the Sony supports mpeg2 (m2ts or mpeg for example) so you can remux without transcoding, but I don't think MakeMKV will do that.

I have no idea, could someone elucidate? Thanks!

Edit: On another note, why can't my S390 read JPG files? I get the same message, corrupt or unsupported.

Not when I'm posting! But I often get the feeling that a lot of people's eyes glazed over when they started reading what I had to say. Usually someone gets to the issue, though because they are deep in the subject. Their response is usually a lot shorter than my post, but more or less to the point.

On behalf of all the people subscribed to this thread, thanks for addressing your own issue there with an update, it's the right thing to do.

I have used Handbrake, which is talked about a lot in transcoding to h.264, I used it to reduce the file size of videos I took with my Canon point and shoot (1080p video that was awfully bloated to begin with), haven't used it since. Did that only a time or two. Did it to allow uploading to Picasa, IIRC.

My usage of Handbrake was such that it was apparent that you can set many many parameters. I think you could minimize size and quality loss if that's your priority, and I imagine that people tweak the parameters to reach what is for them the happy medium between quality and file sizes.

I have no idea, could someone elucidate? Thanks!

Edit: On another note, why can't my S390 read JPG files? I get the same message, corrupt or unsupported.

Yes, you can tweak the encoding settings, but the ideal is not to re-encode at all.

I think the key things you need to decide is what devices will consume your files and how much you care about quality. If you have iOS devices or other devices that may need h.264, then it makes sense to transcode your content and you might be willing to wait for the transcoding time and take the quality hit. If you just want to play content on your Sony BDP, ideally you just want to remux the content to a container the player can handle, this way you can prepare the files more quickly and the quality will be identical to the original disk.

Yes, you can tweak the encoding settings, but the ideal is not to re-encode at all.

I think the key things you need to decide is what devices will consume your files and how much you care about quality. If you have iOS devices or other devices that may need h.264, then it makes sense to transcode your content and you might be willing to wait for the transcoding time and take the quality hit. If you just want to play content on your Sony BDP, ideally you just want to remux the content to a container the player can handle, this way you can prepare the files more quickly and the quality will be identical to the original disk.

Thank you! Your post hammers it down, completes the picture for me. I don't have any iOS devices. I'm thinking just the Sony BDP, although I have an Insignia BD player I bought off of ebay to allow me to play PAL BD's. Maybe it can handle the mkv's, will check that out. I also have a Windows Phone (Nokia 520) that plays the mkv's fine, could be the hardware transcoding feature of my DS214play, don't know. There's a fair chance it is, because the DSVideo app on the phone uses Synology's Video Station, which does support the transcoding feature. Anyway, playing video on the phone was mainly a lark, I have a great projection system and that's where I watch my movies! I'll look into remuxing!

Thank you! Your post hammers it down, completes the picture for me. I don't have any iOS devices. I'm thinking just the Sony BDP, although I have an Insignia BD player I bought off of ebay to allow me to play PAL BD's. Maybe it can handle the mkv's, will check that out. I also have a Windows Phone (Nokia 520) that plays the mkv's fine, could be the hardware transcoding feature of my DS214play, don't know. There's a fair chance it is, because the DSVideo app on the phone uses Synology's Video Station, which does support the transcoding feature. Anyway, playing video on the phone was mainly a lark, I have a great projection system and that's where I watch my movies! I'll look into remuxing!

With a projection system any flaws will be magnified, so you'll definitely want to avoid transcoding to get as close to the source as possible. Note that for unprotected discs, you can play the .vob files copied directly from the disc. The down side of this is that the presentation may span across multiple files, so you won't get seamless playback.

Most commercial titles have CSS encryption that would need to be decrypted before copies of the files can be played.

I have the S390, am new to DVD ripping except in producing disks, want to get into digital rips. I installed Makemkv and did a basic (default settings) rip to an mkv file and put it in a folder in my new Synology DS214play NAS's video folder, turned on the S390 and directed it to the folder but it says the file is either corrupted or in an unsupported file type. What are the issues here? Can I configure Makemkv to rip to a file that the Sony can play? Do I need instead to run Handbrake on the mkv to produce something the Sony can play? What are my options? TIA for guidance.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apostate

Which video codecs are you using? Mkv is just a container. Sony may not be compatible with the video codecs you are using.

It also comes down to how you are accessing the file. If you are trying through a DLNA server, the file may/may not play. However, if you copy the same file to a USB hard drive (NTFS if files are over 4GB) and then play it through the S590 that way, it may work. Give that a try.

Depending on the video/audio settings codecs for the file, SONY prevents the player from play high quality digital files via a DLNA network connection. It's hidden in the back of the manual of supported file types in the notes section.

It also comes down to how you are accessing the file. If you are trying through a DLNA server, the file may/may not play. However, if you copy the same file to a USB hard drive (NTFS if files are over 4GB) and then play it through the S590 that way, it may work. Give that a try.

Depending on the video/audio settings codecs for the file, SONY prevents the player from play high quality digital files via a DLNA network connection. It's hidden in the back of the manual of supported file types in the notes section.

The codec is supported, evidently the container is not (mkv). Unfortunately, I got the S390, which it seems does not have a USB port. My Insignia does but it only supports Fat32, so won't play e.g. my 5+GB main movie DVD rip I did recently. The insignia has an ethernet port but evidently it's just for streaming internet video, not video on your network, near as I can tell.

So, my options with S390 are to use something to rip to a supported container. I'll be looking into that. Tsmuxer, maybe.

The codec is supported, evidently the container is not (mkv). Unfortunately, I got the S390, which it seems does not have a USB port. My Insignia does but it only supports Fat32, so won't play e.g. my 5+GB main movie DVD rip I did recently. The insignia has an ethernet port but evidently it's just for streaming internet video, not video on your network, near as I can tell.

So, my options with S390 are to use something to rip to a supported container. I'll be looking into that. Tsmuxer, maybe.

The container is supported. The Sony player is purposely blocking it for essentially DRM security. It's preventing you from playing a digital copy. DVD/VHS recorders do something similar. Try recording something off HBO to a DVD and it won't let you, but it will let you record the same HBO program to a VHS tape because the quality of the video & audio is greatly reduced.

This is why the component connections (RGB) were removed from the back of players. Component was able to carry an "unsecured" HD signal without all the security of HDMI. Composite video (yellow) only can carry 480i which will not give you a perfect digital copy and thus not as much of a concern and was left only for old legacy TVs.

Look at page 36 of the manual. In the Video Table under MPEG-4 AVC it list mkv as supported. However note *2 says "The player may not play this file format on a DLNA server". In the Audio Table under AAC/HE-AAC (which I'm assuming is the audio format of the video you're trying to play), it also has the same note *2.

Yes, you can tweak the encoding settings, but the ideal is not to re-encode at all.

I think the key things you need to decide is what devices will consume your files and how much you care about quality. If you have iOS devices or other devices that may need h.264, then it makes sense to transcode your content and you might be willing to wait for the transcoding time and take the quality hit. If you just want to play content on your Sony BDP, ideally you just want to remux the content to a container the player can handle, this way you can prepare the files more quickly and the quality will be identical to the original disk.

- - -

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pioneer_Elte

The container is supported.

I said it wasn't because of Vampidemic's comments in a few posts back, quoted above (see bolded).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pioneer_Elte

The Sony player is purposely blocking it for essentially DRM security. It's preventing you from playing a digital copy. DVD/VHS recorders do something similar. Try recording something off HBO to a DVD and it won't let you, but it will let you record the same HBO program to a VHS tape because the quality of the video & audio is greatly reduced.

This is why the component connections (RGB) were removed from the back of players. Component was able to carry an "unsecured" HD signal without all the security of HDMI. Composite video (yellow) only can carry 480i which will not give you a perfect digital copy and thus not as much of a concern and was left only for old legacy TVs.

Look at page 36 of the manual. In the Video Table under MPEG-4 AVC it list mkv as supported. However note *2 says "The player may not play this file format on a DLNA server". In the Audio Table under AAC/HE-AAC (which I'm assuming is the audio format of the video you're trying to play), it also has the same note *2.

I actually have 3 players, stacked just like this:

1. The Sony BDP-S390
2. Insignia NS-WBRDVD4
3. Momitsu DVD-V880

The Momitsu has component connections and a DVI out as well, no HDMI, and of course, no Blu-ray support, also no ethernet. The Insignia has ethernet but evidently is incapable of playing files off a network, just supports internet streaming services. It will play the MKV's off a device plugged into its USB port, but only FAT32, so I run into the 4GB limit.

Well, I'm unclear now on what I need to do to get playable, large, high quality files stored on the network? I could play them from my desktop, but would need to work out reasonably convenient remote control somehow. I prefer to leave the desktop out of it if at all possible.

I said it wasn't because of Vampidemic's comments in a few posts back, quoted above (see bolded).

I actually have 3 players, stacked just like this:

1. The Sony BDP-S390
2. Insignia NS-WBRDVD4
3. Momitsu DVD-V880

The Momitsu has component connections and a DVI out as well, no HDMI, and of course, no Blu-ray support, also no ethernet. The Insignia has ethernet but evidently is incapable of playing files off a network, just supports internet streaming services. It will play the MKV's off a device plugged into its USB port, but only FAT32, so I run into the 4GB limit.

Well, I'm unclear now on what I need to do to get playable, large, high quality files stored on the network? I could play them from my desktop, but would need to work out reasonably convenient remote control somehow. I prefer to leave the desktop out of it if at all possible.

Out of curiosity, what audio format are you using on your file that won't work on the SONY? If your audio track is 2-channel stereo, it may work using a mp4 video.

The container is supported. The Sony player is purposely blocking it for essentially DRM security. It's preventing you from playing a digital copy. DVD/VHS recorders do something similar. Try recording something off HBO to a DVD and it won't let you, but it will let you record the same HBO program to a VHS tape because the quality of the video & audio is greatly reduced.

This is why the component connections (RGB) were removed from the back of players. Component was able to carry an "unsecured" HD signal without all the security of HDMI. Composite video (yellow) only can carry 480i which will not give you a perfect digital copy and thus not as much of a concern and was left only for old legacy TVs.

Look at page 36 of the manual. In the Video Table under MPEG-4 AVC it list mkv as supported. However note *2 says "The player may not play this file format on a DLNA server". In the Audio Table under AAC/HE-AAC (which I'm assuming is the audio format of the video you're trying to play), it also has the same note *2.

1). Muse was attempting to play a mpeg2 codec mkv, which is not supported by this player per the manual and first post of this thread. I believe this limitation has been confirmed via user testing. I didn't see anything in Muse's post that would suggest DRM was an obstacle.

2). The manual has some misleading and incorrect information in the file support section. I have played a ton of 1080i mpeg2 .ts files over DLNA using Serviio without issue, for example, despite the manual footnote which suggests it will only play SD mpeg2. If you have experienced the player allowing files to be played over USB that it would not play over DLNA, please post specifics. Note however that DLNA playback issues are not always straightforward. For example, a server may not support some file types which could prevent the files from being indexed and made available on the player, or the server may remux or transcode files to a formats known to be supported by the player to extend compatibility to codecs and containers the player will not play natively. I suspect confusion related to this led to some of the footnotes in the manual.

3) Most DVD and BD discs do have protection mechanisms that would need to be compromised in order to output a copy which will play externally (for example in most computer software). Software designed to 'rip ' discs usually handle this. Obviously, files with DRM (example a movie downloaded from iTunes ) will not play either without somehow breaking the protection. I have not heard reports of the player implementing its own restrictions for DLNA or USB to cripple this functionality which seems to be implied by the above post. Based on reports here, the player doesn't even enforce Cinavia over USB or DLNA (though it does for disc copies).

All of the analog restrictions are kind of a joke because it is easier and quicker to rip higher quality digital copies. Even HDCP can easily be defeated to recapture HDMI output in digital form (including premium TV networks). They have helped to sell a few new TV sets though, I'm sure. :-)